In this one, England regresses into a feudal society ruled by motorcycle gangs. It's caused by a snowball effect involving the actions of student protesters, unions and politicians.

A nice irony is that once the action is underway, the book is divided into parts that are prefaced by a newspaper article from the Times of London. In each part, a different government or power is in charge and the Times effortlessly speaks fluently for its varied political masters, changing easily to accomodate wildly opposing realities without losing its place on the perch.

One thing that doesn't quite work is the lack of a reaction from other countries. The United States helps people not to starve by sending them fish protein ("Frotein") but it seems like England has no trade partners, no alliances. Wouldn't NATO or the UN get involved?

But this is a work of speculative fiction as well as a series of character studies. It follows the grown members of one particular family. The father is a successful businessman who survives the first crash by becoming a junk merchant, going around on a horse looking for things to buy and sell.

Eventually his family is targeted by a particular motorcycle gang that he had clashed with before everything went to hell. They move in and take over.

Meanwhile his brother-in-law is forced by another gang to take LSD and ends up being swept away by his religious beliefs, which were always an escape but end up becoming something much bigger.

Pendulum approaches horror, mostly because of incidents of brutal violence and sadism that inevitably occur. A few scenes in particular were really hard to take, which says something about Christopher's unflinching and understated writing style.

And then there's the end of the book. It's somewhat ambiguous. I couldn't tell if there were hope or not, whether the final line was rational or delusional. It's genuinely unsettling.

The first line is "They drove back from Pallister through the dusk of a fine June day".